Beethoven: Overtures, Vol. 2

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Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 -1827)Overtures Vol. 2Die Weihe des Hauses (The Consecration of the House),Op. 124Zur Namensfeier (Name-Day Celebration), Op. 115Leonora No.1, Op. 138Leonora No.2, Op. 72Konig Stephan (King Stephen), Op. 117Musik zu einem Ritterballett (Music for a KnightlyBallet), WoO I 1. Marsch (March)2. Deutscher Gesang (German Song)3. Jagdlied -Deutscher Gesang (Hunting Song -GermanSong)4. Romanze -Deutscher Gesang (Romance -German Song)5. Kriegslied- Deutscher Gesang (War-Song -GermanSong)6. Trinklied- Deutscher Gesang (Drinking-Song -GermanSong)7. Deutscher Tanz (German Dance)8. Coda Trauermarsch (Funeral March) for Leonore Prohaska, WoO96/4Triumphmarsch (Triumphal March) for Tarpeja, WoO 2a Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn in 1770, thegrandson of Kapellmeister Ludwig van Beethoven, director of music at the courtof the Archbishop-Elector of Cologne, and, less satisfactorily, son of a singerat the time in the service of the same patron, but later to be pensioned offfor drunkenness and consequent incompetence. The younger Beethoven, however, survivedthe vicissitudes of childhood to enter the Archbishop's service as a keyboard-playerand violist. In 1792 he moved, with his patron's encouragement, to Vienna,taking some lessons from Haydn and, more profitably he alleged, from otherteachers in the Imperial capital. In Vienna he established himself as a pianistand composer of great originality, attracting the active support of leadingaristocratic families. This patronage stood him in good stead with the earlyonset of deafness from the age of thirty , allowing him to continue his workprimarily as a composer. Deafness brought a measure of isolation and everincreasing eccentricities of behaviour, born with toleration by his admirersand supporters. His achievement, one of remarkable originality and power, wasto expand the classical forms and textures of his predecessors, suggesting newways forward, while providing music of a stature that his successors found itdifficult to equal. His death in 1827 was widely mourned both in Vienna andelsewhere. Beethoven's connection with the theatre was limited. Hisonly opera, theSingspiel Fidelio, with a libretto by Sonnleithnerbased on a French original,Bouilly's Leonore ou L'amour conjugal, wasunfortunate in its timing. It was first performed in Vienna, at the Theater an derWien, on 20th November 1805, a week after the occupation of the city by Frenchtroops, with Napoleon now established at the palace of Schonbrunn, and theEmpress, in whose honour the work had been intended, now, with the rest of theImperial family, in temporary exile from the capital. The opera deals with therescue of a political prisoner,Florestan, by his faithful wife Leonora, who disguisesherself as a boy, Fidelio, and takes service in the prison, able, in the nickof time, to save her husband.There are four different overtures to Fidelio. Thefirst of these, later published as Opus 138, was discarded before th